Brake Controller Adapter Wiring

[Mbryson]

No, it's a silly tazer thing. If you had said you were messing around with a tazer and turning trailer lights on and off with a tazer, we'd have said - there's your problem - you.

No one else has ever had any issues with connecting in a brake controller. Your issue was caused by you and tazer.
Zero issues with the stock Jeep trailer setup. It works fine for anyone else, plug and play.

I don't know what you were doing or thinking you were doing using tazer to do what with trailer lights? Why did you use tazer trailer lights - what does that even mean?

Why are you screwing around with trailer lights using a tazer? What's the point or goal?

I hadn't turned the lights on or off with the Tazer. It's only in there to correct for my 37" tires and let me control the auto-start-stop (which isn't that big of a deal since I've left it on).

I noticed that in the Tazer controller, I could turn trailer lights on or off. Thought I'd give it a shot as I assume that's in the body control module? (I was about to just wire to the brake switch but that wire MIGHT be 22 guage? I thought better of that and decided to check through the Tazer manual and see if there's a toggle for trailer lighting)

I didn't want to work with the Tazer but after checking every fuse in the box and such, I didn't really have any other avenue other than taking it to the dealer for $200+ to have them "fix" something I was able to fix with my Tazer. Turns out that turning the option off, resetting, turning it back on and resetting works. That's the odd part

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[ShadowsPapa]

Trailer lights wouldn't matter unless a trailer was connected. And the feed to the trailer brake controller isn't trailer lights - it's the truck's brake lights.

The only connections to the trailer brake controller connector by the left kick panel in the truck are:
* Ground
* Power to trailer brake controller (which is fuse F36 and is 30 amps because that's what it uses to power the trailer brakes so it needs some power - trailer brakes can pull 16 amps or more if I recall correctly) See note *** below
* Brake signal (From the truck to the trailer bake controller connector - which comes from the ABS and goes here and to the BCM for lighting)
* Power FROM the trailer brake controller TO the trailer connector at the rear to power the trailer brakes (and nothing else)

Trailer lights, including trailer brake lights, have no involvement in the trailer brake controller connector nor any of its feeds.
It still had to be tazer doing something weird. I'd bet that if you had never installed a tazer at all, or didn't have it in the system at the time of trying to install a trailer brake controller, it would have been fine.

*** Note - the line from the F36 fuse goes directly to the trailer brake controller. There is nothing else in between. You can't disable or turn this on or off short of pulling the fuse. There is either power there, or there is not. It leaves the PDC, through fuse F36 and goes right to the brake controller connector in the cabin at the left kick panel. there are no other electronics in the way. In other words, it's pretty much impossible for anything to interfere with getting power to the trailer brake controller connector.

The blue box at the bottom of this image is the trailer brake controller connector - check out the wiring diagram - from F36 in the PDC right to that connector -

 

[Mbryson]

Trailer lights wouldn't matter unless a trailer was connected. And the feed to the trailer brake controller isn't trailer lights - it's the truck's brake lights.

The only connections to the trailer brake controller connector by the left kick panel in the truck are:
* Ground
* Power to trailer brake controller (which is fuse F36 and is 30 amps because that's what it uses to power the trailer brakes so it needs some power - trailer brakes can pull 16 amps or more if I recall correctly) See note *** below
* Brake signal (From the truck to the trailer bake controller connector - which comes from the ABS and goes here and to the BCM for lighting)
* Power FROM the trailer brake controller TO the trailer connector at the rear to power the trailer brakes (and nothing else)

Trailer lights, including trailer brake lights, have no involvement in the trailer brake controller connector nor any of its feeds.
It still had to be tazer doing something weird. I'd bet that if you had never installed a tazer at all, or didn't have it in the system at the time of trying to install a trailer brake controller, it would have been fine.

*** Note - the line from the F36 fuse goes directly to the trailer brake controller. There is nothing else in between. You can't disable or turn this on or off short of pulling the fuse. There is either power there, or there is not. It leaves the PDC, through fuse F36 and goes right to the brake controller connector in the cabin at the left kick panel. there are no other electronics in the way. In other words, it's pretty much impossible for anything to interfere with getting power to the trailer brake controller connector.

The blue box at the bottom of this image is the trailer brake controller connector - check out the wiring diagram - from F36 in the PDC right to that connector -

Right, and I didn't get signal (test light wise) on the brake signal wire (I think that was green with with tracer if I remember correctly on the truck harness) until tinkering with the Tazer. I have trailer brakes now. Didn't have them before. I reset and tested any/all light/trailer fuses last night again. Nothing changed last night other than when I tinkered with the Tazer (not the biggest fan of it but it's kind of necessary for my rig). Just sharing my experience in hopes that it helps someone. (2021 Jeep Gladiator deezel Rubicon)

You're possibly (probably?) right about the Tazer being the issue that created the issue? Your thoughts above are the things I've been going over in my head for the past few weeks. I'm glad my controller is working. It wasn't working until I tinkered with the Tazer.

My only thought (without all the diagrams other than what you have posted above) is that the brake signal wire on the brake pedal goes to some kind of body control module (22-24ish gauge pair of wires) and that signal wire was not sending signal through to the harness plug in until after I reset it with the Tazer. I won't even profess to want to know if there is a body control module or other... I'm becoming quite disenchanted with my wife's 2015 Lincoln and my 2021 Gladiator and all the wiring complexity of each vehicle.

There's something to be said for simplicity. Simplicity is NOT part of any vehicle produced in the past 5-10 years. I'm old enough to remember that junky fuel injection stuff coming into vehicles in the mid-late '80s. That means I've seen the early '90s-mid 2000's good and bad things. I'm curious as the really late model stuff rolls out of warranty if anyone will want to work on my rig, let alone me.

This morning, I'm longingly looking back to my 7.3L F*rd deezels or later model gas Super Duty trucks today. Those just can't do some of the things I do in the JT. They EXCEL at what I'm doing with my JT today. My JT will do the job I ask of it today, not as well as the Super Duty's, but it'll do it. On the other hand, my JT will SMOKE a lot of rigs off road and is a pretty reasonable daily driver even with 37" tires (18-19 mpg). Tough to beat the JT for a day run to Moab or ??? in Utah. Drive it, wheel it, drive it home. The JT serves minor truck things OK. I'm a bit tainted as I've had a HD pickup (2 Dodges and 4 F*rds of various flavors) for the past 18 years or so.

The JT is a great Swiss Army knife type rig. Not great any one particular thing but pretty reasonable for a LOT of things. We'll see how the diesel thing turns out with mine. We'll see how the Chrysler thing turn out with mine. We'll see how the modifications (lift, tires, wheels, sliders, compressor, radios, Tazer) affect my experience with it. Tazer is kind of necessary (or similar gadget) for the tire size and a couple other things I don't remember what I changed with it. Right now, I'm a bit grumpy with it (why couldn't it come with an installed brake controller from the factory?) but I bet when I look back on this "truck", I'll like it more than I do today.

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